Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders won a decisive victory over Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin yesterday, in spite of an interview with the New York Daily News editorial board that Sanders reportedly “bungled” to the point that the Clinton campaign used it as a fundraising tool.
https://twitter.com/gdebenedetti/status/717504760362827776
While much of the media’s attention was drawn to Sanders’ plan to break up the big banks, others were more concerned with his assertion that Israel had killed more than 10,000 “innocent people” in the 2014 Gaza War. Even Sanders himself wasn’t sure he was in the ballpark.
That time Bernie Sanders said Israel killed 10,000 civilians in Gaza, about 10 times the actual figure. https://t.co/aoyzyIp48s
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) April 6, 2016
@joshrogin @MaxBoot Like when Yassir Arafat decried the thousands slaughtered in Jenin. The actual number was 54 and half were terrorists.
— Joseph Toomey (@JosephEToomey) April 6, 2016
“Anybody help me out here, because I don’t remember the figures, but my recollection is over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza. Does that sound right?” he asked the editorial board. “I don’t have it in my number … but I think it’s over 10,000.” Whatever the number, Sanders was sure he wasn’t alone in thinking Israel’s use of force “was more indiscriminate than it should have been.”
Bernie Sanders: Israel "indiscriminately" killed "10,000" Palestinians https://t.co/vOoMhRnqKG pic.twitter.com/xnMt8AmhqU
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 6, 2016
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#letmegetthisstraight Sanders aids BDS by inflating Palestinian casualties–half of them Hamas thugs–by five and won't apologize to Israel?
— Michael Oren (@DrMichaelOren) April 6, 2016
The Washington Examiner noted that Sanders’ estimate managed to far surpass even the number of casualties claimed by Palestinian sources, which estimate that 1,462 Palestinians were killed out of the 2,251 Gaza War fatalities.
Understandably, both the Anti-Defamation League and the Times of Israel would like Sanders to clarify his estimate.
We believe he knows facts matter. So @BernieSanders, please clarify Gaza comments. FYI–>https://t.co/IjjuUuSuom https://t.co/fpRgJMzhEG
— ADL (@ADL) April 6, 2016
HAPPENING NOW: We call on @BernieSanders to correct his misstatement on Palestinian casualties during 2014 Gaza war https://t.co/PLYXQ4DkCk
— ADL (@ADL) April 6, 2016
The Times of Israel has also called on Sanders — literally — to correct his “grossly inflated” Gaza death toll. The newspaper “has reached out repeatedly to Sanders campaign communications director Michael Briggs and national press secretary Symone Sanders to ask whether the Vermont senator would acknowledge and correct his mistake in massively inflating even Hamas’s own estimation of how many civilian lives were lost during Operation Protective Edge.”
The Times reports that after two days it has received no response from the Sanders campaign.
Seven times worse than Hamas: Bernie Sanders by the numbers https://t.co/25yM35aHqt
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) April 6, 2016
President Obama certainly hasn’t commented on Sanders’ claim, although he has told the press that, yes, some of the “wackier” foreign policy suggestions being made by GOP candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are doing real damage to US relations abroad.
Sanders yet to correct false claim Israel killed ‘over 10,000’ Palestinian innocents https://t.co/fvVUom1Vql
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) April 6, 2016
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